[Always *]

I am glad that you realize you need to get help.

My experiences are similar but different to yours, I thought I had ADHD and I down played the depression when I finally saw a psychologist because I didn't think the fact I was so unhappy I wanted to hurt myself was a "real" problem, at 15 years old I thought it was just cause school and people sucked. It took me a year to convince my parents to let me see the psychologist!!! It was ridiculous, especially because when I was depressed my mom was all to happy to suggest that I go see a counsellor so I wasn't sure why they were so resistant to the idea of a psychological assessment. They finally bent when they realized things weren't getting any better for me....

I am really hoping you won't have to wait for a year to see a professional. I would strongly recommend that you go and see a doctor, if you are 16 or older (your profile says you are 17) you may see a doctor without parental consent because you can now consent for yourself. Perhaps the doctor can give you a game plan and perhaps even speak with your parents to explain to them why it is so important

A school guidance counsellor may so be able to help you out with getting the help you need.

Some communities have places that offer free counselling, so this might be a good place to start if you can locate this service so that you can start managing some of the things that challenge you. Other places will offer counselling on a sliding scale (ex. if you can only pay $30 or even less).

Also, a few habits such as eating healthy and exercising have helped me a lot. I've actually been noticing that if I work out first thing in the day that it works out a lot better for me than if I work out later in the day. I feel like a good work out will sort of elevate your mood in a healthy way so if you do so in the morning it could theoretically *to a certain degree* improve your mood. A consistent schedule and a tidy home help as well. But these sorts of things only help to a certain degree as I said, so I would still strongly recommend finding other areas to seek help.

As we are struggling with similar issues, if you ever need to chat just PM me